Be careful while giving information-- Identity theft!

Our identity is unique -- we are unique- and it must be kept that way!

Very often we dont understand the risks of giving out information to people-- let it be on social sites, banks, email new forms, or even the courier guy.

I mean-- lets look at facebook-- I can if i go through in some details anyones profile , i can get to know their friends, what they like doing, where they live, what they have done recently- travel, ate food, etc etc. In short I will know as much about their life as their real friends or close family!

In Emails or new sites where one registers we enter answers to those questions which no one will know to-- or only you will know --- easy to capture if the email gets hacked ( thats why email companies are paranoid about security!)

Couriers- I mean we get couriers daily-- bank statement, credit card bills, credit cards -- and the courier person wants to see ID proof, telephone Id and notes it down. Recently my Credit card had expired and I was expecting a new one. The Blue Dart person wanted either a passport no, Pan Card -- and wanted to note down my PAN card no ! I freaked out and told him to take a walk. The reason he said was that banks ask them for the information.

Now -- heres my point- as people randomly start collecting such information-- they can easily start creating an identity of you-- for themselves.

We need to be careful as to how we share such information. Some tips here.

1. Have a different Signature for your banks and other places-- so no one can copy it!
2. Dont share financial information-- PAN Card, Passport nos-- make sure no one writes it down- let them use it to identify you.
3. Have different passwords for your financial sites and different for your regular stuff.


Keep yourself safe-- only you can
Comments welcome!

( dont forget to subscribe by clicking on the link on the right)